Set Fire to the Rain
by Grinder-Lector
Summary: When robots take song lyrics too literally... STEAM POWERED GIRAFFE
The Spine walked along the wall outside of Walter Manor. The sky was grey and hidden by dark clouds. It was obvious it was going to rain. But the Spine continued his walk before any kind of down pour could happen. He was enjoying the peace and quiet.

A man on a bike passed him, "It's going to rain soon, pal. Get inside fast!"

"I plan to!" The Spine shouted to him in a matter of fact tone, the man on the bike disappeared into the distance. The automaton kept his eyes on the ground as he continued his steady stride.

The first splash of rain hit the Spine on his metal cheek. The coldness took him out of a brief day dream. His eyes widened. He needed to get back inside as soon as possible. His legs took off into a sprint as he ran along the wall. The faster he ran, he could see the gate get closer.

When he reached the gate, he took no time to stand around. As soon as he passed through it, he flung it closed and made a beeline for the entrance to the manor. He could see the wide open front entrance. The lack of a door soaked the floor inside.

Before the Spine could get inside something hit him in the head causing him to fall. He rubbed the area in which the object hit his head. He quickly looked around to inspect what the object was before he could run again.

It was an umbrella hat.

"Hey, Spine! Up here!"

The Spine looked up. His jaw dropped at the site. Rabbit and Hatchworth were both on top of the roof. Umbrella hats donned their heads.

"Put on y-y-your hat and get up here!" Rabbit shouted down to her brother.

"Come down from there at once!" The Spine commanded.

"Put on your hat," Rabbit continued to shout.

The Spine sighed as he picked up the hat and put it on. He looked back up to his siblings. He felt anxious as he watched them. It was very easy for anyone to fall off the roof. Especially in the rain. He was going to command them to come down again until he saw his brother swing his arms around. At first he looked like he was doing a strange dance, confusing the Spine. He felt his eyes widened as he saw it was gasoline.

Rabbit held out a can of hair spray and a lighter towards where Hatchworth was flinging the gasoline. She ignited the lighter and sprayed the hairspray against it causing the spray to become a flame thrower. As the fire made contact with the gasoline, tiny flames danced around them. The Spine nearly fainted as the flames were dangerously close to Hatchworth. The sudden singing caught him off guard though.

 _"I set fire to the rain,  
Watched it pour as I touched your face!"_

Confusion took the Spine over as they sang, "What are you both doing?!"

"We're doing what it says on the tin, the Spine! The tin being the song of course!" Hatchworth shouted to him, a smile beaming on his face, "We're setting fire to the rain!"

"That's ridiculous! Come down now!" The Spine gritted his teeth as Hatchworth continued to fling the gasoline into the heavy downpour for Rabbit to set it on fire.

 _"I set fire to the rain  
And I threw us into the flames!"_ They sang.

"Hey, Hatchworth! W-Watch this! I don't need h-h-hairspray!" Rabbit threw the hairspray from the roof, which unfortunately hit the Spine in the head. The two on the roof didn't seem to notice.

Rabbit breathed in before projecting a number of flames from her mouth. As they made contact with the gasoline they ignited more. Hatchworth laughed.  
"When it fell, something - -" Hatchworth stopped singing, "Rabbit, you're not singing!"

He looked at his sister who was now coughing up black smoke.

"Rabbit, I thought we were a team!" Hatchworth sounded disappointed, "I can't believe you're doing this right now."

Rabbit grabbed him by the collar, bringing his face against hers so their foreheads were together, "Never l-l-let me do that again."

"Okey Dokey!" Hatchworth smiled pulling away from her grasp. He began to fling the gasoline around again. Rabbit reached into her pocket a pulled the lighter out again.

"You both need to stop messing around!" The Spine, who recovered from the blow to his head, shouted to his siblings stamping his foot on the ground. In the process he found his foot now stuck in the muddy ground. He yanked at his foot, cursing to himself, "I hope you're both happy!"

They only continued to sing.

 _"Oh noooo  
Let it burn, oh…"_

The Spine sighed with frustration as he realised the only way to get his foot free was to remove his shoe. He looked up at his siblings again. They weren't alone anymore. Steve was now approaching them both. He was carrying a flame thrower.

"Oh no! Don't even think about it, Steve!" The Spine shouted.

The engineer ignored the singing automatons and looked down from the roof to see the Spine struggle with the shoe.

"Why not?!" He shouted back with disappointment.

"It's very dangerous to be on the roof and playing with fire!"

Steve shrugged, "Oh, OK. Well, better get back inside!"

"See? Steve gets it! Why can't you both?!" The Spine addressed his siblings.

 _"My hands, they're strong  
But my knees were far too weak."_

"Of course," The Spine grit his teeth.

Steve clapped his hands getting the attention of the automatons, "Hey let's go inside for ice cream."

"OK!" Hatchworth smiled.

"Sounds great!" Rabbit beamed.

The Spine sighed with relief as he saw the fire act end and the automatons walked away from the edge of the roof.

"Finally…" he smiled as he watched the rain slip from the umbrella hat onto the muddy ground to where his foot still lay sunken, "Now what?"


End file.
